When world-famous soul singing sensation Percy Sledge first performed his legendary 1966 song, "When A Man Loves A Sandwich" it was a shock to the vast majority of society. The world just wasn't ready to hear about the true honest pain of one man's passion for bread and meat.
In the politically charged sexual revolution of the late-sixties, many human-rights campaigners jumped to Sledge's aid, trying to earn him the right to profess his love for whatever foodstuff he should desire. Sadly, the petitions proved futile, and all known copies of "When A Man Loves A Sandwich" were destroyed in a public bonfire outside of Atlantic Records headquarters.
All that remains in the public memory now is the vastly inferior radio-edit, in which Sledge's management insisted he water-down the controversial sentiment by replacing the word "Sandwich" with the more publicly acceptable; "Woman".
Despite this, his original version of the song lives on the hearts and minds of all who heard it.
I know how he feels. I go through the same, head-over-heels, infatuation every time I go to Toast on Trafalgar Street in Brighton.
Fortunately for me, present society is much more forgiving of human/sandwich intra-romance. Everybody loves them, right? If you know somebody that doesn't love sandwiches, PLEASE, write to me and let me know. We need to get an intervention going...
One of the coolest things about the sandwiches at Toast is that they know how to keep you interested. Look at this board:
I know you can't really read it all that clearly, but that is a huge list of all the different specialist sandwiches they provide, and each one has its own "whacky" name. I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for a lunch with any kind of nickname, and it automatically makes me want to try them all.
Here are some, but not all, of the whacky named specials on offer at the moment...
The Alabama
Deep Sea
Morrissey (???)
Godfather
Breakfast Club
Camel Ride
French Connection
Achilles’ Heel
Quorn Baby
The Croc
Big Hank
Nova Scotia
Popeye
Buffalo
Swiss Tony
Kate Moss
Hail Caesar
Super Villain
Hot Diggerty Dog
For me, this was all that was needed to snag me hook, line, and sinker.
They all sound great!
Toast have got a pretty gnarly arsenal of all the usual trimmings you would expect, but all are of a far higher quality than you would necessarily expect from a shop this size. I've never seen less than four people working behind the counter at any given time, meaning that when you place your order, you have one dedicated sandwich technician all to yourself, to help see the project through from inception to completion.
And boy do they mean business. All of the ingredients really are of the highest quality. If they can make something by hand, on the premises, they will. If they don't know how, they will source from an expert as close to the site as possible. Everything is fresh, well put-together, and totally, hypnotically, delicious.
The specific sandwich that I want to talk to you about; the one that inspired this post, is a little guy that Toast call "THE LAZY MORRIS". That's a shot of it right at the top of the page, and here it is again while in the process of being transported to my chomping-zone.
Let me break it down for you:
Fish fingers
Emmenthal Cheese
Chilli Jam
Rocket
All toasted together on the freshest, fluffiest baguette I ever did see.
The fish fingers? Hilarious. I haven't had them since I was tiny, and this felt like a huge warm hug. They taste nice, why don't I eat them all the time?
The cheese? Oh man, they are so generous with it! Gooey, thick, and perfectly portioned throughout. Owmp.
The chilli jam? This is really the sauce-de-resistance. It's sweet, it's sticky, and it’s really quite spicy... It's such a simple solution to the frequently occurring problem of how to contribute flavour to fish without diminishing from it's naturally subtle goodness.
Morris, however lazy you may be you have leant your name to a true work of art.
That really is something worth singing about.
Take it away, Percy Sledge...
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